Lee Jackson - Online and Offline Motivational Speaker and Presentation Coach in organisations, businesses and education.

Lee Jackson is an Award-Winning Motivational Speaker and Presentation Coach working in organisations businesses and education to help people Get Good® - his style is engaging, authentic and jargon free.

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You are here: Home / Archives for education

2020 was tough but maybe in all this madness we got a taste of 20/20 vision after all?…

December 16, 2020 By Lee

2020 was tough, but maybe in all this madness, we got a taste of 20/20 vision after all?

As I sit here wrapping stuff up, in both senses (!), and having done my last speaking gig this year, I’ve been trying to find the right words to bring some meaning and understanding to 2020. Then I started to see some great Christmas decorations on Facebook, and they cheekily made me laugh.

Firstly, the more measured approach:

Then, the (ah-hem) more direct approach! 

These and similar are still for sale on Etsy by the way.

Ok, deep breath…..2020….

This time last year people were blogging and posting stuff about ‘2020 (or 20/20) vision’ in the year 2020 ?. I’ll be honest I thought it was a bit too easy and dull. Bloggers just trying to get better ratings on Google. There was so much of that talk around it became like noise and most people I know just rolled their eyes and didn’t read that stuff. There is always is a bit of jumping on the bandwagon from bloggers, journalists and speakers and yes, 2020 was a date that related to a phrase about clarity.

Geeky bit: It actually is a measurement used by opticians to state that you can see the bottom row of the eye chart from 20 yards away without specs. So you have ’20 yard’ vision – well that’s the simplified version. And over time through slang from Jazz musicians, it became a phrase that means – ‘I can see clearly’ or ‘the fog had lifted’ – ‘we can see the future now’. Perfect for business consultants and motivational speakers like me of course.

So at the beginning of March 2020 we were all ticking along, I was in New York celebrating my big 5-0 and then we started hearing about a virus, people were texting us, and in those few days in March – it got serious and by the time we had left New York the shops were emptying and Times Square was nearly deserted, except for me grabbing the last New York Knicks basketball bargains that I could find. When we landed back home, we were locked down. At that point, everything changed.

It has been a tough year for most, really tough for many, devastating for some.

But as we approach the end of 2020, for me personally through all the trials, worry and upheaval I feel like, in part, that 2020 has weirdly given me better vision and has helped me focus, at work and personally.

I have simplified my business, I am now offering a much more focused offering to my clients, I have focused my attention on what I do well and what solves peoples problems (the heart of any good speaking or training business).

Plus, even though I haven’t been able to see as many of my friends and family as I’d have liked in 2020, I have certainly realised how grateful I am for them, have kept in touch, and have already thought of ways to enjoy hanging out with them in 2021.

All that has happened in a strange sort of way, through tough times and frustration, but I do feel that I have gained some new vision and focus, for my business and for other things too. It’s been uncomfortable, boring and challenging at times but also a kind of a refining process.

Anyway, that’s just me thinking aloud. What about you?

We all want to leave 2020 behind asap. But what did you learn from it?

Where have you been better focused, or refined even?

Press pause for five minutes – have a think, write down some thoughts.

Don’t rush into 2021 without taking stock of 2020.

Then let’s move on into a year of recovery. 

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, leejackson, motivation, random, speaking, teens

Video and Podcast Ep27 – The future of Speaking, Speakers and the Speaking industry! A frank, funny and helpful Pro Speakers panel discussion

July 23, 2020 By Lee

Get Good At Presenting Podcast Ep27 – The future of Speaking, Speakers and the Speaking industry!

A frank, funny and helpful Pro Speakers panel discussion.

You can subscribe/listen to it now, wherever you get your podcasts, more info/podcast links here, click the player below or watch us in glorious technicolour here:

Lee brings together a stellar panel of top award-winning pro speakers to answer the big question…

“What is the future of Speaking and what is the future of the Speaking industry?

In this unique Pro Speakers panel discussion, Lee asks the panel “what do they do different now they deliver online?” and “how have they changed their business model to help their clients post-covid-19?”

The panel consists of Wellbeing expert Pam Burrows, Neuro-science expert/President-elect of the Professional Speaking Association Dr Lynda Shaw, Motivational expert/Chief Zookeeper Nigel Risner, Researcher/Massive goals Speaker David Hyner, Corporate Sales expert Simon Hazeldine and Entrepreneurial mindset expert/Chair of the Professional Speaking Association Rebecca Jones.

Enjoy a lively debate with top tips (occasional light swear words) and honest appraisals of where we are now and how we can adapt to thrive in the Learning and development world in this new season.

P.S. We banned the use of the words “unprecedented” and “new normal” 🙂 

Find out what all our speakers are doing post-coronavirus here:

www.leejackson.org/newseason

www.pamburrows.com

www.nigelrisner.com

www.drlyndashaw.com

www.simonhazeldine.com

https://rebeccajones.biz

www.davidhyner.com

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, leejackson, Podcast, Podcast/Interview, presentationskills, speaking, __EVERGREEN

Free printable Zoom Signs for online meetings…

June 12, 2020 By Lee

Here is Lee’s printable PDF of helpful signs, notices etc to hold up while on Zoom calls.

How many times do you say “can you unmute yourself?!” not any more, download, print and enjoy…

Free printable Zoom Signs for online meetings…

Free PDF Printable Hold up Zoom signs notices phrases cards LeeJackson.biz


You can book Lee to teach his Zoom Presentation Masterclass by emailing or calling him today.

Filed Under: business, education, fun, leadership, leejackson, motivation, presentationskills, speaking, __EVERGREEN

The ten commandments for presenting and training online free download …

June 3, 2020 By Lee

The ten commandments for presenting and training online free download …

More info about Lee’s work and some free resources: https://liinks.co/leejackson

#presentations #getgood #zoom #speaking #onlinemeetings #remotemeetings #presenting #presentationtips #communicationskills #communicationtips

Click photo for full size jpeg.

( Full-size transparent png version is here )

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, leejackson, powerpoint, presentationskills, slides, speaking

The Get Good Target Covid-19 edition!

June 1, 2020 By Lee

A practical tool to help your brain during the coronavirus crisis.
A couple of years ago I designed my Get Good Target.
So I thought I’d tweak it and revisit it for lockdown Britain.

Throughout the lockdown I have had a different routine, maybe you have too?
Some of my friends have done very little on furlough, some have worked on furlough (which is technically illegal) but most, to be honest, have been busier than ever, with home-schooling, work and other stuff, like new hobbies, and for some maybe just eating!

But for me the one thing I do notice about myself is that I can, if I’m not careful, spend a lot of brain-power trying to change things that frankly, I can’t change. It is part of being human, but boy, it can waste our time and make us stressed out. So here is a little diagram for you to put up in your office or on your fridge. The Get Good Target uses the bare bones of an idea from the author Steven Covey and many others to help us enjoy life.

Let me know what you think:

PDF: Lee’s Get Good Target – circle of control – worry covid edition

Jpeg/Photo:

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, motivation

Technology for online presentations is not the most important thing

May 19, 2020 By Lee

My video studio 200k Lee Jackson

It's been quite a journey for speakers, trainers and coaches this last few weeks. I've noticed that now the dust has settled a little, people are starting to obsess a little about their technology and seem to be making their online sessions very complicated.

I've changed, tweaked and developed my offline presentation and workshop 'Get Good At Work' into a great online session now for staff working from home too and one of the ways I have done it is to keep things simple.

Yes, I have some equipment and technology, but people pay me to present, educate, inspire, motivate and inform not to show off the latest tech or do a TV show!

So get a setup that works for you, get some lighting, a good mic and great eye contact (look at the lens).

But do not forget the great content and essential audience engagement in the rush to get speaking online!

You can book me to help your teams stay motivated at home or in the office during this new season by calling me on 01132170081 (UK) or email me here.

All info and to see me in action here: https://liinks.co/leejackson

#getgood #work #motivation

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, motivation, presentationskills, slides, speaking

The 3R’s – my first ever writings – another free weekly resource for the Covid-19 crisis

May 12, 2020 By Lee

To help in this crisis I decided to give some of my resources away to help my clients and contacts. In the last few weeks, I’ve given away hundreds of books, resources and video courses.

Week 8 – Well, I partied remotely for my 50th on Friday night and even DJ-ed live for my friends on Zoom! As I turned 50, I started reflecting and thought about everything that I have written and spoken about over the years and then I came across the first ever chapter in my first ever book that I wrote back in 2001. And even now I was struck that it is the foundation of so much, to be honest, I guess it is the closest that I have got to a “life message” and in fact when I became a professional speaker it was the first ever paid talk that I delivered in my local high school here in Leeds.

The subject of prioritising relationships is very apt right now and many business people have been speaking to me about re-assessing priorities in the light of our current crisis, one told me that he is moving back home now many thousands of miles away.

Here is this weeks resource, for free, for you, enjoy and share, and as usual, there is no sign-up, no email collection, no trap doors.

It’s a little rough around the edges, but my style is still there and the message is strong and challenging. So, here is a slightly edited version for you…

The 3R’s – Lee Jackson (2001)*

After I had spent three years as the only school’s worker in Leeds, the organisation I worked for eventually had enough money to employ a second worker. This was very exciting for me, as I felt like the Lone Ranger some days! When the applications came in, we sifted through them in the normal way, except for one application. It was not on the typed form like all the others; it was a colourful, creative CV with photos and info crammed into its photocopied pages. As I glanced through it, there was a phrase that stuck out and persuaded me that we had found our next worker. It said: ‘All youth work is based on the 3R’s . . . Relationships, Relationships, Relationships.’ What a statement!

I later found out that it had been written in the middle of the night in a haze of caffeine, but aren’t a lot of good things? (Whether or not it’s an original thought is difficult to tell, of course; and yes, it does lean towards the cheesy, but still…) The 3R’s are not only applicable to youth work but to the whole of our lives. Think about it – what is more important than relationships? Our relationships with our partner, children, family and friends are the most important things in our lives. A speaker spoke at a youth workers conference I was invited to. I can’t remember much of what he said, except for one of his phrases: ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!’

The main thing for us is relationships.

Nothing is more important, and nothing comes close to matching it. The whole of this book is based on this simple piece of common sense. Putting relationships first in our lives means that everything else falls into its rightful place. Let’s face it – all men think they have healthy relationships, but how many of us really do?

Even some of the new men’s resources out there talk about being a man (Grrrr, like Tony the Tiger), but sometimes they forget that while we need manly stuff, we also need to be challenged about our relationships. I think there is a healthy balance to be found – we need typical manly-type activities combined with a challenge about our view of others.

Honesty
To move towards deeper relationships with people, we need to develop a greater sense of honesty and realness. I used to work at the Crown Court in Leeds (I thought I’d start as a criminal and work my way up!). As an admin officer, I shuffled paper from one side of my desk to the other and then went home. In the mornings there used to be a ritual that drove me mad: it was the ‘say hello to everyone’ game. Everyone used to say, ‘Hello, good morning, how are you?’ but no one ever replied honestly or ever listened for a reply! ‘Yeah, fine thanks’, ‘Not bad’ or ‘Fair to middling’ were the only responses. Some people even answered the question when you hadn’t asked them! I loved giving people more information than they wanted: ‘Well, I feel a bit tired, actually, and I’m concerned about my relationship with my wife, and my dog has fleas.’ You have never seen people run so fast. We need to get real with each other and stop covering over the cracks with our English barriers. I must admit, though, there is a fine line between being honest and becoming a constant whiner. We will have to find the balance somewhere.

Football was invented because men have got nothing to say to their mates.
Ben Elton

For men, the depth issue is easy to push further – try steering conversations away from football, cars and ‘what I would do if I won the lottery’, and see what happens. Beyond the banter and football talk there is often a man who is lonely and craves true friendship. I know that from my own life. I still have feelings of loneliness and these feelings are shared by some of my (honest) friends. Is the Internet so popular with men because you only share the bits you want to share in selective Facebook-type relationships?

Are all relationships “purpose-driven”?
I have no doubt as to the validity of such relationships, but we have to balance things up. Can we deliberately spend time with people for no reason other than to spend time with them? As someone who enjoys networking, it is difficult not to talk about work all the time, but when I don’t, it often feels great just to connect with someone. A while back my friend Simon said to me, ‘Let’s get together, Lee; I feel as if we’re drifting apart.’ We had both been busy and he was right – we needed time together, not just for the sake of our work but just for our own sakes.

An influential leader once ‘announced’ to me that he had chosen me as his friend – we had a couple of meals together and now he only talks to me when he needs something! Mmmm. Since I have prioritised the importance of relationships with others, I have spent time writing more emails and my phone bill has gone up. So it is not without its costs, but the results are worth it. I used to coach and play basketball in school and I spent considerable time with one group of sixth formers who formed a team, playing basketball with them, organising trips, breaking up fights at their parties and just hanging out with them over the summer holidays. Now they have left school, they still keep in touch and invite me to the occasional party, which is great. All the time I spent getting them back together and checking if they were all right has paid off with, I hope, friendships for many years to come. I have a special friendship with some of them and they are not embarrassed to be seen with ‘that bloke who did my assemblies’.

Our fragrance?.
But what happens if people don’t like you? I used to be in a basketball team where most of the members seemed to hate me. I left in the end because of it. I had helped them, been a faithful member of the team but, for whatever reason, they just hated me. They loved it when I missed a shot or got fouled – it was weird. I went back after I had left to play against them and they still heckled me and were delighted when we lost the match. Some people you will never connect with. I can get on with most people, but these guys simply hated me. It was odd. There is even a bit in the Bible that I found out about where it says that to some people we are a sweet smell and to some people, we are like the stench of a rotting corpse! Maybe I was the smell of death to these blokes! This idea has stayed with me as a reminder of what a responsibility we have to try to maintain good relationships with people, but sometimes you just have to shake the dust from your feet and move on. However, I do believe this is a last and not a first response, as some people seem to think. I have been a ‘sweet smell’ to some people though, you will be glad to know. I used to buy a sandwich on the way to work every Friday, and one day the shop owner said she was selling up the business and moving to France. We had always had a laugh together and I was sad to see her go. On the last day I gave her a hug and wished her well and, to my amazement, she said that there was ‘something different’ about me and she had always enjoyed serving me. Obviously, the way I ordered sandwiches was somehow different to other people’s sandwich orders! The sweet smell again? Who knows?!

Carry on loving?.
I am a big comedy fan and I love some of the old Ealing comedies and the early Carry On films. But amazingly, many of those comedians were paranoid, mean, self-destructive and lonely people. How people who are so gifted manage to destroy the people around them I will never understand. In all the biographies and documentaries of comedians, there are only one or two who are always talked of very highly. Hattie Jacques (the ward matron in the Carry On films) is one of these people. She was a true friend to the greatest collection of outcasts in film history – the Carry On cast. I may not be seen as a ‘success’ in many people’s eyes. But I genuinely hope people will talk about me as a person who cared about relationships and not just a man who achieved a lot at the expense of others.

Once you get a taste of genuine relationships, there is no going back. Anonymous meetings and shallow friendships stick out like a sore thumb when you have seen and experienced glimpses of the real thing.

A few challenges…
Arrange a meeting with someone you work with, for no reason other than to talk to them.
Try to answer more honestly when someone you know asks you how you are.
When you ask people how they are, wait to hear an answer.
Get a cheap call package and make that call you keep putting off.
When you are ‘filling up’ your diary, remember the 3R’s.
Talk to your friends about your weaknesses as well, so they know you are not superhuman and you want a real relationship with them.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine

(*Please note that the book was originally written for men, hence the anecdotes being for men!)

I give away a free resource every week on email – sign up on my website now.

#getgood #leadershipdevelopment #peopledevelopment

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, leejackson, motivation

Get Good At Work Video – Success is not a solo sport, we all need more – a little lesson from history…

May 5, 2020 By Lee

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, leejackson, motivation, __EVERGREEN

Zoom in and Zoom out! Beating Zoom meeting gloom!

April 27, 2020 By Lee

Zoom in and Zoom out! Beating ‘Zoom gloom’!

Since the Covid-19 lockdown and the changes in how we work have kicked in: two things have happened. One, more of us have been working from home – often wearing shorts and pyjamas to work meetings! And two, we’ve all been having more video calls.

But I don’t know if it’s just me but I can get a bit tired of them. Now, don’t get me wrong l like connecting with real people but also I’m realising that video calls are making me feel tired too. So I thought I’d investigate.

Are we all Zoom’ed out? Does looking at others on a screen make us tired?

It wasn’t just me thankfully!
According to Gianpiero Petriglieri (Associate Professor of learning and development in the workplace) even though we are meeting face to face online, video meetings are way more draining. Because we aren’t able to relax as much and we are always trying to read the little clues that people project, the micro-signals of their tone of voice, body language and even their tiny facial expressions. Phew, no wonder I get “brain fog” after long Zoom meetings because I’m working harder trying to “read people”, something that I took for granted in face-to-face meetings. He goes on in the BBC article: “…paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we’re not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,”

Awkward.
There has also been a lot of talk above the awkwardness of online meetings. I was speaking on the phone to a friend the other day and we were talking over each other getting animated and excited and it was fine and seemed very natural. But over video you can’t talk over each other and worse than that there is often a short delay too, where the call drops or there is an awkward silence that makes us repeat ourselves. We had a call with friends last week where we had to abandon it as the connection was just not working and we spent 20 minutes saying “what”, “sorry”, ”can you say that again?” – it was the equivalent of speaking to a friend while sat on the hard shoulder of the M1 – we were talking but couldn’t hear a thing. It felt ‘odd’. No wonder we find them more tiring than face to face meetings.

Zone out.
I remember thinking as a kid how amazing video calling would be, and now it is here in full force, it is not quite all it is cracked up to be! I was on Zoom for five hours the other day and my brain was tired. But why was it, it is only a video call. I then realised that in real-world work meetings we aren’t always 100% there, let’s admit it! We all zone out a bit, i.e. when someone is speaking for too long – we tend to let our minds wander, we notice the odd paintings on the wall, and if they are really boring we start to count the tiles on the ceiling or start thinking what we are going to have for lunch. Then of course we usually zoom back in, but the act of ‘zooming out’ (no pun intended) is a little break for our brain, it’s good for us. We need to remind ourselves of that.

So if you have a long video call or a few in one day, don’t forget to:

Take regular breaks.
Try and get them to keep it to an hour!
Allow ourselves to ‘Zoom out’ occasionally.
Mute your audio/video so you can stand up, stretch and walk around.
Don’t schedule back to back video calls
Also, don’t expect yourself to be more efficient in the lockdown, we are all dealing with lots of change, so schedule rest and breaks.

Video calling is now a big part of work, and it is important, but we as humans cannot be focused on someone’s face on a screen 100% of the time, we’re not robots, so be kind to yourself, take brain breaks and hopefully we’ll start to keep video meetings useful, especially if everyone decides to get to the point a little quicker! But that’s another article altogether!

Lee Jackson is an award-winning Speaker and Presentation Coach. He delivers his ‘Get Good At Work (from home)’ sessions on and offline internationally. You can find him at leejackson.biz and on twitter @leejackson

Further reading:
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200421-why-zoom-video-chats-are-so-exhausting
https://www.insider.com/virtual-hangouts-why-ok-to-decline-protect-mental-health-2020-4
https://cupcakesandcashmere.com/lifestyle/a-few-ideas-for-shaking-off-that-zoom-gloom
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-zoom-fatigue-is-taxing-the-brain-here-is-why-that-happens/
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Is-Zoom-So-Exhausting-/248619

Filed Under: business, education, leadership, motivation, presentationskills, speaking

Podcast Episode 15 with Coach Jim Johnson and the story of the basketball viral sensation J-Mac

October 18, 2019 By Lee

New podcast episode…
This time Lee interviews Coach Jim Johnson a US-based speaker who became a viral sensation after he asked his team manager, an autistic student, to sub into his basketball match. J-Mac scored 20 points in 4 minutes!

Amazing story, hear about it and how he now speaks about it in business and beyond…

“Err, so yes, I have managed to get basketball and speaking into the same podcast – I love my job :)”
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/get-good-at-presenting-podcast-with-lee-jackson/id1439480430
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JZAKkQCILYs9Le4g2nePb?si=k3y87XdSROWjikYJSMsEkw
Everywhere else: http://leejackson.org/podcast

Ep15 – Interview with US-based Professional Speaker + YouTube viral sensation Coach Jim Johnson – made famous when his high school basketball game went viral after he substituted into the game the team manager J-Mac. J-Mac is an autistic young man who went on to score 20 points in 4 minutes! Hear more of the story here.

Jim’s website is here: https://coachjimjohnson.com

The videos and more info is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_McElwain

https://www.tiebreaker.com/jason-mcelwain-autistic-high-school-basketball/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tui8EOdv_VU

Filed Under: business, education, fun, leadership, motivation, Podcast/Interview, presentationskills, slides, speaking, teens

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